Thurrock Marching Brass Wins Silver At British Championships

After a long season of performances across the UK the youngsters of Thurrock Marching Brass headed for the first of their two British Championships at the Drum Corps United Kingdom (www.dcuk.org.uk) Finals which were held on Saturday 23 September 2017 at the Select Stadium in Widnes and competing in the Junior Class.

To start the competition, the young drum line for Thurrock Marching Brass competed in ‘Drumline Battle’ which saw them head to head with fellow rivals in the Junior Class Concord Allstars from Sheffield. The winners of this battle would advance to the final and pit their skills against another competitor for top honours. Although an incredibly entertaining display of skills and showmanship by the youngsters of Thurrock Marching Brass, the older members from Concord Allstars were named victorious on this occasion. Our congratulations to Concord Allstars for an excellent display. Concord would later go on to win the ‘Drumline Battle’ outright later in the evening.

There is no doubt that the performance by the TMB drum line won many hearts and with the largest marching cymbal line ever seen at the competition it has left a really positive impression on the scene. Thurrock Marching Brass is extremely proud of everyone involved in the ‘Drumline Battle’ and would like to congratulate them for their incredibly entertaining routine and skills.

Immediately after the ‘Drumline Battle’ the Junior Championships began. It was the turn of the whole band to perform for the final time in the Junior Class their 2017 show entitled ”Charlie’s Chocolate Factory”. The show sees giant props being manipulated by the young members to create scenes within which they perform live music using marching percussion which includes bass drums, snare drums, tenor drums and marching cymbals; brass instruments such as trumpets, flugelhorns and baritones and static percussion consisting of glockenspiel, marimba, xylophone and vibraphones. These are all intertwined with a theatrical set of sound bites, telling the story of Charlie’s journey from collecting the keys to the infamous Wonka Factory right through to finally learning how to manage and run the whole thing. The show is a spectacular production that is set on a football field and performed to a packed stand of enthusiastic audience members.

With a magnificent performance this young team had the audience on their feet by the end of their production and we couldn’t have asked for a better effort by each and every one of them.

When the announcements for the trophies were made, it was a superb silver medal and runners-up to British Champions for the youngsters of Thurrock Marching Brass along with the High Visual Effect caption, and Gold going to Concord Allstars along with the other captions. Again, our congratulations to Concord Allstars on their victory and what a fantastic result to conclude the DCUK season for TMB. A Silver medal at a British Championships! Well done everyone involved.

On Sunday 25 September the youngsters of Thurrock Marching Brass moved on to compete in the more senior Championship Division of the British Youth Band Association (www.byba.org.uk) at the Stafford show, billed as Brass Explosion and hosted by our dear friends at Stafford Lancers. This would be the very last regional competition on this circuit prior to National Championships which will be held on Saturday 7 October 2017 at the Sixways Stadium in Worcester.

A very long weekend for the members didn’t detract from a solid performance despite early issues with the sound system and they posted a 13 point increase from their initial show on this circuit and a fifth place on the day in this tougher class. With no colourguard judge available on the day there is everything to play for at Nationals as Thurrock Academy, TMB’s colourguard are a very strong section for the team. We couldn’t be any prouder of everyone involved in all aspects of the organisation right now.

The members are now being prepared for their last competitive performance of the year at the BYBA National Championships on Saturday 7 October and we wish them the very best of luck in their quest for a medal in that show.

Speaking of the whole experience Thurrock Marching Brass Corps Director, Jay Lindner says “When we looked at the schedule for this year, which includes two completely different competition circuits in DCUK and BYBA, as well as the very many community and other engagements, you could be forgiven for wondering just how on earth we would manage to cram it all in. But that just goes to show how lucky we are to have on board the incredible talents within my staff base and with those that run this great organisation together with the best set of parents anyone could ever wish for. Together we built an incredibly busy year of experiences for the kids that each and every one of them has learnt a great deal from. Not least of all the latest full weekend away that has seen our youngsters compete in another British Championships and have represented Thurrock in the upmost professional and inspiring way by yet again bringing home some top honours – there was no doubt they proved an incredible favourite with the crowd once more. Every single one of those members will remember just how brilliant the reception for them during the ‘Drumline Battle’, and for it to be repeated later in the day with a well-deserved standing ovation following the performance of Charlie’s Chocolate Factory – amazing. I couldn’t be any prouder of each and every one of them. Sunday was about attempting to post a decent seeding score ready for the BYBA National Championships in a week’s time and the kids did a brilliant job and increased their previous score by a whopping 13 whole points. We now prepare them for BYBA National Championships and can’t wait to see how they do in the more senior and challenging Championship Class. Thank you to everyone who made the weekend happen and for their involvement in helping to secure Thurrock yet another British Championship high accolade and recognition. Bring on Nationals!”

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